Broken Home
by Leks Bronks
Summary: Cursed is the man who dies. But the evil done by him, survives.
1. Home Alone

**Broken Home  
A Dead Space 3 Fanfic**

_Just a little something I was inspired to start writing after playing Dead Space 3. Hope to finish it one day._

* * *

**Chapter 1  
Home Alone**_**  
**_

* * *

_**[_Journal log, 11.26 -E. Langford_]  
**_

_**It's been two months since Tau Volantis. **_

Ellie Langford's hands paused over the holographic keyboard of her computer in contemplation. She glanced over at the torn, faded photograph of her beloved friend, seeking his inspiration.

_**It's only been that long since I last saw him. But it feels like decades.**_

Again she slowed to a stop, saddened by the memories that had been haunting her since her return to Earth, and a normal life. She had survived, but Isaac Clarke had been expunged along with John Carver, and the Blood Moon in the wake of its devastating downfall. For the most part, she had learned to take consolation in the fact that their sacrifice did not go in vain, having perhaps given the human race a very rare opportunity to even their odds against the Necromorph spread. Still, as empty as she felt in Isaac's untimely absence, even the most valorous of her memoirs occasionally failed to fill the void.

_**Finally found a decent place to live, for now. And I found a job here I think I can stick to for more than a week. Not making a whole lot at it but all in all, I'm doing ok. Technically, I'm doing better here than I was at NH. **_

She twisted her lip.

_**It's funny, I didn't think I'd live to see my feet on real, solid ground. I thought I was going to die out there. But, little by little I'm beginning to feel like a normal person again.  
**_

Again she looked at the crinkled photo of Isaac, tacked to the wall next to her desk. She reflected upon his enigmatic grin, and how his eyes seemed to be staring into her soul, taunting her with the knowledge that she would never see him again. With a heavy heart, she reached out and longingly stroked the photo with her fingertips.

_**But it's just not the same without him. It isn't fair that he didn't have the chance to share this with me. Our entire relationship was spent living in fear.**_

Her hands hesitated over the keys.

_**I really loved him. It shouldn't have ended this way.**_

She finally stopped, placed her elbows upon the desk and folded her hands before her. It was becoming difficult to continue, so she tapped the sleep button on the console to dismiss the holographic display. It blinked and vanished, depriving the room of its aqueous blue light, and she rubbed her eyes, feeling the heat of her tears just beneath her skin. She knew that her attempts to drive away the intimate memories of Isaac still clinging to her mind were failing, and she drew a deep breath. What she needed right now was a nice, long walk.

_She needed to get out of her cage._

She stood to her feet and headed for the door, stepped out onto the street in front of her small, rundown studio apartment, and raised her face to the sky as she entered the sunshine. It was a relieving change from the cold, overcast weather that had been prevailing lately, and she gladly took the opportunity to bathe herself in what little natural warmth and light had finally broken through the clouds. She then looked up and down the street, noting how it seemed a little vacant for a Sunday afternoon considering how cramped and overpopulated the slum-like, urban sprawl she had come to call home was.

With a few hours left before nightfall and feeling hungry, Ellie started for the downtown marketplace, which was a good several blocks from her residence. When she reached the inner heart of the city, the number of people around her increased, until she was amidst an ocean of bodies wading to and fro along the packed, narrow streets. She eyed the bright lights of the downtown district as she headed for it, and seeking to vanish within the crowd she zipped up her jacket and shoved her hands in her pockets, keeping her eyes on the ground.

_She had never felt more isolated and alone, even among so many people. The only one who mattered to her wasn't there.  
_


	2. Unexpected News

**Chapter 2**  
**Unexpected News**

* * *

Night had fallen over the city by the time Ellie finished her dinner, so after picking up a few groceries she started to head home. The temperature had dropped, and the clouds had reassembled to cry a light, cold rain upon the streets. When the drizzle increased to a steady rainfall, Ellie pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and picked up her pace down the glistening, wet pavement.

When she arrived back in her neighborhood, Ellie could see just as she turned onto her street that there were two people in uniform standing at the front door of her apartment. She immediately stopped, wide eyed and frozen to the spot in fear.

_Oh... shit._

Ellie sensed this could be trouble, knowing how resourceful the Unitologists were when it came to finding those who were in hiding, like herself. The blow Isaac had dealt the Church on Tau Volantis was egregious indeed, and the repercussions had assured that she would never cease being a prime target of their vengeance for as long as she lived. No matter how peaceful her life might have been up to now, she couldn't take any chances.

_Who knew how many of his followers Jacob Danek might have told about Isaac and everyone associated with him, including her? And how far could a message like that have spread?_

The people standing at her door had not yet seen her, so Ellie's initial idea was to run away. But before she could commit herself to following through, one of the two people happened to glance in her direction at that exact moment. They both made eye contact momentarily, and Ellie felt an ice cold lump expand in her throat.

_Uh oh._

This person continued to stare at Ellie, and she realized that she couldn't back out now without risking them following her out of suspicion. So, she instead lifted the bag of groceries she was carrying to conceal her face and resumed walking down the street, trying to act normally as she passed her apartment by like a total stranger. She pretended not to see the two people and just kept her eyes on the wet sidewalk, but when she was close enough, she sneaked a quick sideglance at their uniforms. She recognized the emblems branded on the upper sleeves.

_EarthGov?_

Second thoughts began to tease her, and she slowed to a stop. While she had some reason to be just as wary of EarthGov these days, there was no question that they were far less of a threat to her than the Unitologists. Ellie was tempted to retract her plan and instead approach them, but her inherent paranoia could not let go of the possibility that it could also be a trap.

_Who were these people?_

Her sense of caution fought for several moments to keep her aloof from the situation, but Ellie's intrigue was too much to hold her back for long. Against her better judgement she decided to slowly, suspiciously head up the walkway to her apartment, shooting defensive glances at the both of them as she neared.

"... Hey? Can I help you?"

One of the two people, who was a dark eyed, brown haired female, glanced Ellie over without a smile.

"Are you Elizabeth Langford?"

The other person standing by her side - the one that had made the initial eye contact with Ellie - displayed the experience of a soldier in his tall, powerfully built body and battle-weathered features as he stood silently beside the female officer, his hand resting on the gun on his belt. With her eyes tacked nervously to his weapon, Ellie struggled to answer truthfully.

"Who wants to know?"

In contrast to the bulldogged demeanor of the soldier, the officer's wasn't so aggressive as she stepped forward.

"I'm Lieutenant Jenson, and this is my partner, Warrant Officer Fletcher. We're from the American Republic division of EarthGov, northeastern sector."

Again, Ellie glanced at them both warily.

"American Republic? You're a long way from home. What are you doing here?"

"We came to find you, Ms. Langford. We have something we need to discuss."

By these words, Ellie assumed they had come to recruit her for some new mission agenda. But she was exhausted, left weary and brokenhearted from her tribulations, and she figured she and Isaac had done their work - the Marker signal was dead. She owed them nothing more.

"Look, I'm not interested. Go find someone else for your job."

Jenson raised her hand as Ellie attempted to pass her.

"That's not why we're here."

Ellie was forced to stop, irritated with the officer's persistence as she blocked her path.

"Well... what do you want?"

"We understand that you worked with one of our teammates on Tau Volantis."

To Ellie, this was alarming to hear. As far as she had known, only a very small number of EarthGov personnel, counting Robert Norton, John Carver and the Tau Volantis Marker Ops crew, knew about her being there - and she knew all of them by name... at at least, she thought she had. She didn't recognize this officer or her partner as part of the group, so she was curious to know their ties.

"Teammates?"

Jenson nodded gently.

"Yes. Sergeant John Carver."

Ellie drew a deep breath and looked down.

"John Carver?... Yeah. He was your teammate?"

Officer Fletcher nodded.

"Yeah. Well, he used to be."

Ellie glanced back up.

"Is he alive?"

Jenson and Fletcher shot a nervous look at each other, and Jensen shook her head.

"He was never found. They declared him dead."

She had already concluded that Carver had shared in Isaac's dismal fate, but to hear the confirmation from outside sources still struck Ellie profoundly. She swallowed back some emotion.

"... He was a good soldier. He did the right thing."

Fletcher crossed his arms before his chest.

"It's because of him that we're here. He told us about you, and the mission. He also told us that if he didn't come back, we were to make every effort to locate you. Especially if we got any news."

Ellie furrowed her brow.

"News?"

"Ms. Langford, we came to tell you that we've found your husband. He's in our custody."

Ellie's expression, which had been pale and filled with dread, suddenly went blank. She had never been married so she was certain they were mistaken, possibly having found someone unknown to her who just happened to share her surname.

"Wha... my husband? What are you talking about?"

"Isaac Clarke. We uh, we do have the right Elizabeth Langford, right?"

Jenson flashed a small, friendly smile as Ellie's face suddenly flushed bright red, and her wide, rounded eyes shimmered with tears. Unable to contain herself, Ellie cried out as the world fell out from beneath her feet.

_"He's alive?!"_

Seeing Ellie's luster as it came back like a nearly snuffed flame nursed back to full brilliance, Jenson smiled.

"He's pretty damn lucky. One of our scouting teams tracking Jacob Danek found him. He is alive, but..."

She paused, and in the brief moment the smile started to fade from her face.

"He's in a coma. Docs think he suffered some brain damage."

Jenson's voice drifted away as a million ecstatic and tragic thoughts raced through Ellie's mind.

_He's alive. Oh, God... he's alive! But, in a coma? How could she have left him there? She could have searched for him. She could have found him! Maybe he would have been ok...  
_

"... Ms. Langford?"

Finally hearing Jenson's voice over her thoughts, Ellie looked back up. The tears lining her eyes began to streak down her cheeks, she started to breathe heavily, and feeling lightheaded she pressed a hand to her forehead. The bag of groceries she had been holding slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground, the contents scattering.

"I... I gotta sit down."

Jenson looked at Fletcher with some amusement.

"Sure. Let me walk you in. Officer, would you get that for her, please?"

Jenson walked Ellie up to the door of her apartment as Fletcher attempted to collect Ellie's fallen groceries, scowling as he chased the items he clumsily kicked out of his grasp with his large, steel toed boots. With a shivering hand Ellie fumbled at the lock, finally managed to get it open and stepped inside along with Jenson. Fletcher followed shortly behind, closing the door behind him.

Once inside Ellie's apartment, Jenson and Fletcher glanced around as Ellie made her way to the couch in the center of the small, cramped living room. Both soldiers observed that the living room was packed with computers and mechanical equipment nearly from wall to wall, with little furniture other than the couch, a small coffee table, a few surrounding chairs and her work desk. Fletcher placed the bag down upon the table and chuckled as he and Jenson took their seats across from Ellie.

"Nice place you got here. You running some kind of computer shop here, or something?"

Jenson elbowed him to be quiet, but it didn't matter; Ellie didn't seem to have heard him. She just sat on the couch with a dead stare at the floor, trying her best to absorb the shock of the news she had just received. Jenson eyed her with a little concern.

"Are you alright?"

Ellie looked up at her, a serious expression sewn across her face.

"Where is he?"

Jenson's smile of amusement faded and she leaned forward in her seat, clasping her hands together between her knees.

"Isaac's in the South Oxford Infirmary, located in the city of New Baltimore. Do you know where that is?"

Having taken her own refuge an ocean away in the United European Republic, Ellie was disheartened by the great distance that lie between them. Flat broke, she knew that she couldn't afford to travel such a long way on her own.

"Jesus... that's so far away from here. Is there any way you can take me there?"

Jenson's compassion came through in a gentle nod.

"Yes. We have a shuttle stationed at a base nearby. We'll take you there."

Ellie felt great relief to hear this, and she expressed her approval to Jenson with a reassuring nod. However, the clouds of doubt quickly reconvened.

"How... did you find me?"

Jenson leaned back.

"It was tough. We've been trying to track you for three weeks, now."

Ellie was astonished.

"Three weeks? You mean he's been here on Earth for that long?"

"Longer. They made contact with him a couple of months ago. He was stabilized for transport at an off world facility for about 2 weeks, then he was brought back to Earth. He's been at South Oxford since."

Ellie slowly dropped her head into her hands, unable to hold back her sobbing.

"Oh, god..."

Jenson sighed.

"We tried to get to you as soon as possible, but you were really difficult to find. Our only clue was your RIG ID, which we finally tracked to this location."

Again, suspicion reared it's head in Ellie's mind.

"How did you get my RIG ID?"

Without a word, Jenson reached into the front pocket of her jacket. She pulled out a folded, stained piece of paper that had obviously seen some wear.

"We got it from this. It was stuck in Isaac's belt when they found him."

She handed the piece of paper to Ellie, who glanced curiously then gently unfolded it. As soon as she held it fully open she recognized Isaac's handwriting, which was scrawled hastily across the paper in what was either dark red ink or perhaps blood.

_**Whoever finds this  
tell my wife Elizabeth  
Langford I love her.  
**__**RIG 773BLW28-4620A**_

Ellie stared sadly at the paper in her hands. She felt a weight in her chest as tears slid from her eyes and down her cheeks, indebted to a deep sense of amazement and humiliation by the depths of Isaac's love for her.

_He honored her enough to call her his wife. _

She slowly leaned forward as she started to sob out loud, and her tears fell onto the paper in her hands, causing some of the writing to run in long trails. Jenson and Fletcher watched with sympathetic eyes.

"Ms. Langford, we can take you there, but we have to leave tonight. Will you come with us?"

With a boggled mind still inundated with a million thoughts, Ellie didn't hear Jenson's reply. She just continued to stare at the tear-smeared piece of paper in her hands.

_How could she have left him there? Why didn't he respond to her calls when she was searching for him? How long had he been out there, floating alone out in space with no one to help him? She should have looked for him. She should have..._

"Ms. Langford?"

Ellie suddenly looked up, her face drained of all color, and her pale lips puckered slightly as her stomach began to twist into knots. Without a word she rose to her feet and stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Jenson and Fletcher looked at each other for a moment with concern, until they suddenly heard the muffled sounds of Ellie retching from behind the closed door.

While they waited for her, Fletcher chuckled lightly and patted Jenson's shoulder.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun, Lieutenant."


	3. Bittersweet Reunion

**Chapter 3**  
**Bittersweet Reunion**

* * *

Aboard the EarthGov shuttle 'Liason' with Lieutenant Jenson and her crew, Ellie hardly spoke a single word during the 3,500 mile journey from Glasgow to the American Republic's northeastern seaboard. Strapped to her flight seat, she spent most of the time just staring out the window upon the Atlantic Ocean, unable to think of anything else than Isaac. She kept his photo in her hands, which her eyes jumped to every so often as if in some attempt to hold him to this earth just long enough to see him again. To tell him how sorry she was.

_Sorry for everything._

On more than one occasion Fletcher came up to her, asking if she needed anything to make her trip more comfortable, but Ellie would dismiss him with little more than a doleful shaking of her head and no eye contact. She couldn't have felt any farther from wanting to connect with anyone, and with only the endless stretch of ocean they sailed over to occupy her time, Ellie could dwell only upon Isaac's dire situation.

_I'm coming, Isaac. I'm coming. Just... hang on.  
_

With so much time to herself, she naturally revisited her memories of the eventful past few years of her life. She thought about their time at New Horizons, which had certainly had its share of ups and downs; for along with the excitement of their partial vagabond lifestyle and the heartfelt pastimes they shared as a couple who really connected, there were also the highly opposing conflicts they had as two different perspectives on the mission. In the end, it was Isaac's Marker scarring-fueled depression, the substance abuse that he tried to subdue it with, and ultimately his stubborn refusal to cooperate with Ellie's desire to find and destroy the Markers once and for all that would change everything between them.

* * *

_She had awakened to an empty spot in the bed beside her. Apparently, it had been vacant for some time; he hadn't even bothered to come home before the morning. She had begrudgingly gotten used to going through her morning routine alone more frequently lately._

_Fuck._

_Sometime before noon, he finally slipped in through the door. His face was pale, he looked as if he hadn't slept in days, and he was still wearing the same clothes from the day before. His scattered, bloodshot eyes shot wildly around to avoid hers. Seeing all of this, she cornered him immediately._

_"Where were you?"_

_"Nowhere."_

_"Don't fucking lie to me, Isaac. I know exactly what you're doing. You can't hide it."_

_He grimaced._

_"Whatever. You don't know what you're talking about."_

_To Ellie he was completely transparent, and Isaac knew it. The confirmation she saw in his eyes as they fell away was sickening to Ellie, who fought to hold back a snarl - if not a very fledgling desire to slap him. She crossed her arms and glared at him.  
_

_"Right, then. Show me your arm."_

_Upon her request, Isaac pulled back, defensively. _

_"What? Er, no."_

___Just as she expected. Her teeth tightened a little.  
_

___"Let me see your arm, Isaac. I want to see it."_

___"Fuck you."_

___She snapped for his arm, trying quickly to pull the sleeve of his jacket up to catch a glimpse of his skin. But he reacted with surprising speed and blocked her attempt with his hand, and then grabbing her by the shoulders, he shoved her back._

___"I said no!"_

___She stumbled back a few feet before she managed to catch herself; while she suffered no physical damage, the emotional gash he had just rendered her burned her insides and robbed her of the ability to respond to him. She just stood there and stared at him, undignified as she clenched her fists in shock. Immediately regretting what he had done, Isaac paused and watched her nervously, slowly receding back into the open doorway. It was all the confirmation that she needed to know she was right._

___"...You miserable, selfish bastard."_

___After staring him down for an uncomfortably long period of time, Ellie turned around without a word and headed directly for the closet. Isaac continued to watch her as she furiously started to pull her things out, and being as she obviously wasn't going to say anything, he drew a deep, embarrassed breath. He barely managed to get the words out.  
_

_"I'm, I'm sorry."_

_She refused to answer him, or even look at him. With an load of her clothing over her arm, she reached under the bed and pulled out her suitcase, opened it and started stashing the clothing inside of it. Isaac waited a few moments then snickered at her, trying desperately to deflect his own panic through anger.  
_

_"Oh, so you're leaving, now. Well... that's the right way to deal with this, right? Find some kind of excuse so you can run off and have your little adventure. I've been there, Ellie. Adventures suck."  
_

_Still, she continued on in furious silence, ignoring him. His eyes darkened.  
_

_"You can't leave me here."_

_In an instant Ellie exploded, and turned on Isaac like a venomous serpent. She pulled her lips back, revealing her white teeth, and her eyes burned with the heat of her fury as she hissed at him. _

_____"I am NOT going to sit around here and wait until the day I find you belly up in that seedy fucking dragon's den! I won't do it, Isaac! If you're really that weak that you're gonna let what that Marker did to you dictate your life, and how you live it... Then maybe you do belong here after all. And maybe I don't."_

_____She pawned off another long, cold glare onto him then returned to packing her things, but her frustration soon overcame her. A moment later, she stopped to rub her face with her hands._

_"I don't know what happened to you. We used to be in this together. When did it stop being about the mission, and start being all about you?"_

_Her accusative tone provoked Isaac, who now shook off his reluctance to oppose her.  
_

_"It's a fucking joke, Ellie. This is a goddamn suicide mission you wanna do. And for what? To save the world? Save **what** world? There's nothing left to fucking save... Why does it matter so much to you? Why can't we just... wait out our time in peace?"  
_

_Ellie bit her lip and stared into his dulled, glazed eyes. She could tell his mind was so clouded with intoxication that he was not going to listen to her. _

_"This is just something that I have to do. With or without you."_

_She tossed the last item into her suitcase, shut the lid, and sighed. _

_"I love you, Isaac. But... this just isn't working out between us."_

* * *

"Miss?"

Ellie was startled by the sound of Fletcher's voice, and she looked over to see he was stooped on one knee next to her seat in the shuttle.

"We'll be arriving in about 10 minutes. Is everything alright?"

Surprised to know how much time had passed, Ellie glanced out the cabin window and saw that they had already started to descend through the clouds, and the Atlantic ocean finally yielded to the landscape of the American Republic's northeastern seaboard. Realizing she was so close to seeing Isaac again her heart began to pound, but she did her best to conceal this from Fletcher.

"... Yes. Everything's fine."

He looked her over, then nodded.

"Ok. Make sure your belt is fastened."

Fletcher stood to his feet and returned to his seat near the cockpit, and in a few minutes the atmosphere became a little more lively as the crew started to initiate landing procedures, the air filling with the sounds of each others' directives and replies. Ellie felt the craft start to shudder upon their descent, and she kept her eyes out the window, watching as the tiny, ant-like specks on the ground grew larger and closer until she could distinctly recognize the rooftops of city skyscrapers and other buildings, all packed together and arranged like pieces on an overcrowded chessboard. As they finally descended below the cityline toward the base, Ellie looked around as they sailed past so many buildings, nervously wondering which one of them Isaac might be housed in.

They finally docked at the base, and Ellie immediately tucked the photo of Isaac into her pocket, released her seat belt, and jumped to her feet. Jenson and Fletcher soon after came back into the cabin from the cockpit, and one of the crew members opened the exit door latch. Jenson motioned to Ellie.

"We've gotta check in at the base first. Then, we'll take you to the infirmary. It's a short drive from here."

Ellie nodded without saying a word, and followed the crew out of the shuttle. She quickly tossed her jacket on as she stepped out into the air, feeling it was almost colder here than it was back in Glasgow. Seeing she was a little put off by the weather, Fletcher shrugged.

"Yeah, weather's been like this all over the place. Goddamn global warming is turning this whole planet into one gigantic friggin' ice cube."

Had she not been in such low spirits, Ellie might have chuckled at the soldier's attempt at joviality. However, the mood was somber and devoid of conversation as they led Ellie to the base. Once she had settled in, Jenson and Fletcher escorted Ellie to one of their ground vehicles, where they proceeded to head for the South Oxford Infirmary Center.

For some reason, this short, 6-mile ride seemed even longer to Ellie than the flight had. They passed through the city streets of New Baltimore, and Ellie noticed how everything seemed so grey - the buildings, the cramped, artificially engineered parks, even the people. It seemed as if the entire world shared in her despondency, and it made her briefly wonder if their having stopped the Markers' infectious spread really did make a difference for this waning planet, like Isaac had once said.

"There it is."

Jenson's voice caught Ellie's attention and she turned to look out the opposite window to where Jenson was pointing. There, just a few hundred feet away, she saw a large, plainly fabricated one-story facility that was isolated from any other buildings, and which stretched horizontally for several blocks. Ellie's heart skipped a beat to know she was co close now.

_Oh, god... please be ok._

Every moment felt like an eternity to Ellie as the vehicle pulled up into the unloading area. Jenson and Fletcher exited first, followed by Ellie, who glanced up curiously at the facility as she closed the door behind her. Seeing she was nervous, Jenson, like her partner, made an attempt to keep things light.

"It's ok, Ellie. He'll be fine. If he survived Tau Volantis, then this place'll be a piece of cake for him."

Ellie tried to return a smile, but she found it extremely difficult as they passed through the giant archway demarcating the facility's outer entrance from the inner lobby. As soon as she was inside, Ellie right away caught the obscenely impersonal details that identified any hospital - antiseptically clean hallways, industrially sterilized linens, and the odor of impending death as it emanated from so many of the hospital rooms. She closed her eyes, ashamed to think that Isaac had to spend his days back on Earth in such a morbid place.

_Maybe was better he was in a coma, after all. Just so he wouldn't have to deal with this place._

She trailed behind Jenson and Fletcher as they approached the front desk, and she looked around at all the faces that surrounded her in the waiting room. People in wheelchairs, stretched out on gurneys, hobbling up and down the halls with the assistance of canes or rolling catheter poles, sick children leaning against their parents for relief, their faces pale and weak. Everywhere she turned Ellie saw only the sadness of human decline, all of which made it very hard to accept that this was a place of any real sort of recovery beyond superficial wounds.

Once completing her conversation with the receptionist, Jenson finally tugged at Ellie's sleeve.

"C'mon, Ellie. This way."

They led her down the hall and through a set of double doors, upon which Ellie read the metal plaque identifying this section of the facility.

**INTENSIVE CARE / CCU**  
**AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT**

They continued on down the hall for some time, taking several turns down passageways that all seemed identical and jumbled Ellie's sense of direction. They finally stopped as they reached another long stretch of hallway that was just as indiscernible from the rest.

"He's right down there - Room 105. We'll wait for you here, so you can, you know... have a private moment."

Seeing how frightened Ellie appeared to be, Jenson patted her shoulder.

"Everything's going to be ok."

Jenson nodded approvingly and sent Ellie on her way, whose heart was knocking at her rib cage. The reality that she was just about to see Isaac again after so long was so overwhelming to her, and not knowing what to expect she slowly continued on down the hall by herself. She eyed the number of each room as she passed.

_95... 97...99..._

Every door she passed was shut closed, the medical chart of the patient inside hanging upon a metal hook. That these people were in such dire condition that they needed to be locked away from public sight was extremely disturbing to her. She continued on.

_... 101... 103..._

Her pace slowed and she swallowed apprehensively as she closed in on the correct room.

_...105._

She stopped just before the doorway, and glanced at the chart hanging on the door.

_ISAAC CLARKE_  
_Patient Assessment Form_

The rest of the document was filled out with handwriting that she couldn't read, nor did she want to out of fear. She instead looked down, drew a deep breath and placed her hand upon the handle of the door. As soon as she opened it and looked inside, she instantly recognized the man lying upon the bed, who was inundated with various intravenous devices and practically lifeless. A single tear streamed down her face.

_Isaac..._

This tear was quickly followed by another, then more followed the longer she stared at him, absorbing the sight of him as she slowly approached his bedside. His injuries were extensive beyond anything she had ever seen, and she was absolutely amazed that he could still be alive. Mortified, she pressed a hand to her mouth.

_What happened to you?_

Isaac appeared ancient, like a fossilized, entombed corpse. Bandages were wrapped over half of his entire body, and almost every inch of exposed skin was either severely bruised or burnt. There were several long, bloody gashes across the right side of his face, which appeared like large, deep claw marks that had dug into his cranium, and the eye socket was bruised, dark as midnight. His body was riddled with deep lacerations and puncture wounds that ran all the way down his neck, chest and arms as if he had been thrown onto a bed of metal shards, and the bandages that covered most of his body left Ellie to wonder if the same damage existed all over him. His neck was in a brace and his left arm was set in a cast, along with several fingers on his fight hand, and although he was covered with bed sheets she could tell that beneath them both of his legs were bandaged in a similar fashion. The skin of his face was pale and gaunt from lack of proper nutrition, emaciated to the point that she could see the outline of his skull; his ribs were also visible on his side, and she guessed that he had lost over a quarter of his body weight. He was in a state of deep unconsciousness, his eyes were closed, his body cold and still as a cadaver. His arms were tacked by several needles and catheters, and breathing tubes had been inserted deep into his throat and nostrils.

She watched his chest, noticing how shallow the movement was, and she feared that the oxygen machines were perhaps the only thing keeping his lungs working. Through tears she glanced at the heart monitoring equipment, seeing how dangerously slow and weak his pulse was. Were it not for the meager readouts they provided, Ellie would certainly have believed he was dead.

Unable to see him clearly through the tears in her eyes, Ellie slowly fell to her knees beside the bed. Taking his cold, nearly lifeless hand in hers, gently massaging it in the fleeting hope that he might be awakened by it, she began to cry.

"I'm sorry, Isaac. I'm so sorry. I thought you were dead."

As she gave in to her sadness, she started sobbing more.

"I... I'm so sorry I left you there, Isaac... I... I should have looked for you... I should have... I should have tried harder."

She slowly made her way up the bed, reaching out to gently stroke his bloodied forehead. She looked at his face, wishing he would open his eyes for only a moment, just so she could look into them and convey to him just how deeply responsible she felt for what had happened.

"Wh... what can I say? I'm so sorry, Isaac."

Several agonizing minutes had passed before there was a quiet knock on the door. Ellie pushed herself up, suppressing her tears and she turned around to see it was Officer Jenson, who had a very concerned look upon her face.

"... Everything alright in here?"

Ellie quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, nodding fervently.

"Yes... yes."

Still looking concerned Jenson stepped into the room, followed by one of the nurses.

"Why don't you come back with us now? I think you could use some rest."

Ellie shook her head, sniffling.

"If... if it's okay, I'd rather stay here tonight."

Jenson shook her head.

"I don't think that's a good idea. You can't really do much for him right now."

"Please, Jenson. _Please."_

Seeing Ellie was pleading with her, Jenson glanced at the nurse.

"Well... as long as the staff doesn't have a problem with it."

The nurse followed with a nod, then looked at Ellie with a warm, comforting smile.

"You can stay, just as long as you remain here in the room after hours."

A tiny smile of relief crossed Ellie's lips.

"Yes. I promise."

The nurse and Jenson both started to back out of the room. Before Jenson exited completely, Ellie called to her.

"Jenson..."

The officer paused, looking at her and waiting to see what Ellie was going to say. The smile spread just a little wider upon Ellie's face.

"... Thanks."

Jenson gave a small smile of her own. before she closed the door.

"No problem. Considering what you've done for ours, it's the least we can do for you. We'll be by in the morning."

Once Jenson and the nurse had left, Ellie turned back to Isaac. Still clutching his hand in hers, she laid her head back down, and closed her eyes.

"I'm not going to leave you here this time. I promise."


	4. A Light In The Dark

**Chapter 4**  
**A Light In The Dark**

* * *

That first night in the hospital with Isaac felt like a year to Ellie. She kept an eye on his vitals all night long, watching protectively as the nurses came in on occasion to change his IV and catheter bags. They also administered a near constant stream of what was explained to her to be sedatives in order to suppress any pain he might be able to feel while unconscious. Without comparable medical knowledge of her own to draw from, she couldn't argue with them.

As early morning approached, there was a break in the nurses' routine that left the two of them alone without interruption for a few hours. The sun had not yet risen, and the room was dimly lit by the glow of the emergency exit lights over the door, and an illuminated LED lamp in the corner. Exhausted, Ellie sat in one of the stiff cushioned chairs next to his bed, fighting back the urge to nod off. However, by this point it was a losing battle for her; with her head resting against her arm she was just about lulled to sleep by the droning sounds of the monitoring equipment. In her mind, all she thought about was when she might hear Isaac's voice again.

_I never gave up on you, Ellie._

She was startled awake by the sound of the door opening. Her head quickly shot up to see as an older gentleman, with a graying duck-tailed beard upon his chin and hair on his head as white as his lab coat, walked in. He was tall and thin like a rod, with an experienced body language that clearly indicated his position as a senior medical practitioner of the hospital. His snowy slate eyes, framed gracefully under a layer of crow's feet, glanced briefly around the darkened room until he saw Ellie sitting in the chair at the foot of Isaac's bed.

"Ah. You must be Ellie."

The man's voice was rich and pleasing as he approached her, a small, distant smile of professional cordiality plastered upon his face. Tucked under his left arm was a manila colored envelope, and he held out his right hand in order to shake hers.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Richard Taylor. I'm the primary physician in charge of overseeing Isaac's care. How are you?"

He had asked merely out of courtesy; he could tell exactly how Ellie was by her dazed, almost haggard appearance as she forced herself up in order to greet him properly. She tried to return a smile with the handshake, but it turned out to be more like a weakened grimace.

"Erm... I've been better."

Taylor nodded sympathetically, doing his best to put her at ease as he took a seat next to her. He gently placed the envelope he was carrying upon the table between them.

"Yes, I imagine so. I also imagine you're eager to know about his condition."

She nodded, feeling like a small, frightened child about to be told something tragic about her parents. The doctor slowly sighed, unfastening one of the buttons on his pristine, white coat as he thought about what to say.

"Well, I've come to discuss the options available to us, and to answer any questions you may have."

Ellie started nervously wringing her hands between her knees.

"Is he going to be ok?"

Taylor cleared his throat.

"Specifically, he's suffered some serious physical injuries. Internal bleeding, dislodged neck vertebrae, a broken arm and ribs, a sprained wrist. But our greatest concern is that he's possibly sustained some nerve damage. There's evidence of repeated blunt force trauma to the head, the damage of which was aggravated by an extended period of time without oxygen. This has triggered some paralysis throughout his body."

His lips dropped slightly.

"The paralysis has disrupted his motor abilities - breathing, muscular control, that sort of thing."

Ellie appeared to shrivel like a wilting flower. She felt so hopeless, fighting to keep her voice from cracking.

"So... d, does that mean... he's not coming back?"

The doctor raised his brows a little, seeking to raise her spirits.

"The good news is that despite how bad it looks, none of this appears to be irreparable. He'll eventually heal from his physical wounds, and we do have neurosurgical procedures that have had great success in rebuilding the kind of nerve damage he has sustained."

Ellie's voice perked a bit.

"Procedure?"

"Yes. It's a specialized operation called _heuristic axoplasmic __reconstruction_. Through the use of a genetically modified tacky serum, we can trace out the neural pathways that existed before the damage using a method of approximation, and rebuild them - the best way to describe it would be 'filling in the holes with resin to create a mold of what was once there, based on the footprint the original nerve cells left behind'. It's a much more efficient and effective method than standard neuroplasty, and more accurate - but it is quite an involved process, and carries considerable levels of risk in comparison."

Ellie anxiously drummed her fingers upon the table.

"Risk? What kind of risk?"

"First, there's the possibility of incompatibility. The serum that is used is a somatic gel hybrid - which is very fickle and can be rejected by the host body, similar to the case of a mismatched blood type. If that happens... well, the result, unavoidably, is death."

"Does this... 'rejection' happen often?"

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Taylor glanced her over with compassionate eyes, seeing how distraught she was underneath her calm and collected front.

"While we do our best to get the closest possible match for each patient by using their own DNA to augment the serum, the chances of rejection still remain somewhere in the 35-40% range."

Ellie felt his response like a kick in the chest.

_He had almost a 50/50 chance of not making it. _

"What other risks are we talking about here?"

Taylor leaned forward, placing his elbows upon the table before him.

"There's also the chance that it may just not take properly. While its rare, there have been cases of the serum simply not adhering where its supposed to, producing unwanted results, such as degenerative changes in behavior and personality, that become permanent once the serum solidifies."

Ellie sighed with frustration.

"Degenerative? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, he could become emotionally or mentally unstable, or he could become lost in a vegetative state. We just don't know."

"You mean brain dead."

Taylor nodded solemnly.

"... Yes. However, the one thing on Isaac's side is his age. This procedure has a much greater success rate on matured patients, due to the length of time the neural pathways have been established. On the other hand this procedure is practically ineffective on children, where these pathways have had much less time to develop."

Ellie leaned back in her seat, her mind reeling, and she glanced over at Isaac's motionless body.

"Well, what if you don't, you know, perform this procedure?"

Taylor tossed his hand poignantly.

"We can always fall back to standard neuroplasty. But considering the severity of Isaac's case, I don't recommend it. I believe it will cause him more harm than good."

Silence filled the room for a few seconds as Ellie seriously pondered over Taylor's proposition.

"Ok. What's... uh, something like this going to cost? Because I..._ we_ don't have any real uh, real way to pay for any of this..."

Taylor shook his head.

"Don't worry. Cost is not a factor. We've already been paid in full to perform any procedures that he needs."

Ellie immediately straightened in her seat.

"Paid in full? By _who_?"

The doctor chuckled, a little uncomfortably.

"I'm... not at liberty to say. I can only tell you that a generous benefactor has stepped forward to take care of any expenses incurred. Regardless of your decision today to allow us to proceed down this route or not, Isaac will be given the best care we can provide in any case, at no cost to you. And you can rest assured that we have the most experienced team performing this kind of work here at South Oxford."

Ellie was speechless, able only to conclude that Jenson or one of her superiors must have pulled some strings for her. It was unsettling, not knowing to whom she and Isaac were indebted to, yet the slightest hint of a smile started to break through upon her face.

"Really? Well... what's the next step?"

At this point, Taylor opened up the envelope upon the table and pulled out a few sheets of electronic vellum.

"For the best result, we should perform the procedure as soon as possible. I feel we may have waited too long already, but some of the other factors about Isaac's condition prevented us from doing it any sooner. And your timing in coming here is impeccable, because we'll need you to sign these release forms."

She bent an eyebrow.

"Release forms?"

"Yes. To acknowledge that the risks involved have been explained to you, and to release us of any liability in case of rejection - this is, after all, still a somewhat experimental procedure. You are his next of kin, correct?"

While they weren't legally married, Ellie knew that at this point she really was all Isaac had left in the world; besides, both of their official records had been expunged by now, they were pretty much free to be whomever they wished. Better to leave sleeping dogs lie, she thought.

"... Yes. Yes, I'm his wife."

Taylor nodded and reached into his pocket to pull out a digital pen. He tapped the tip of it to the sheets, and they lit up upon contact.

"I just need your signature right here, please."

Without bothering to read any of the form she eagerly grabbed the pen, and placed its tip where Taylor's finger was pressed. She quickly scribbled her signature, then followed him as he directed her to three other sections to sign on the remaining sheets. Taylor then scooped the papers up, which immediately dimmed as they left the table, and he slipped them back into the envelope.

"All right, that takes care of everything we need. Do you have any other questions for me before we get started?"

Ellie's body temperature started to rise as Taylor stood to take his leave. Sweating a little she again glanced at Isaac, pale and lifeless as a mannequin in the bed behind them.

"Yes... How long is this going to take?"

Seeing the worried look upon her face, Taylor reached out to place his hand reassuringly upon her shoulder.

"It will take about twelve hours. If all goes well, we should start seeing visible signs of recovery within two or three days."

"Really? Wow, so quick?"

Taylor rolled his eyes a little with a grin.

"Well, he won't be running any marathons, but he should at least come out of his coma and you'll be able to talk to him. He will require a regiment of physical therapy after that to help eliminate any muscle atrophy, and to ease him back into a normal routine. But we can discuss all of that after the operation is complete and he's recovering."

Ellie finally stood up and Taylor shook her hand once more, then turned about to take his leave. Ellie slowly made her way toward Isaac's bed, looking at him with concern as she softly wrapped her fingers around his toes. Taylor glanced back at her, pausing for just a moment.

"Ellie, please don't worry. Why don't you go home, and get some rest? If anything happens... we'll contact you."

She looked at him with glossy eyes weighted by uncertainty.

"Yeah. Thanks, Doc."

Taylor left the room quiet as a nighttime breeze, closing the door behind him. In the silence that followed, Ellie gently rubbed Isaac's feet and wondered if this might be the last time she would see him alive. She pressed back the urge to cry.

"Alright, Boo. You'll... be alright in there. See you tomorrow... 'k?"

She stood there a few minutes longer, reluctant to leave until one of the nurses knocked on the door and peered in.

"I'm sorry Ms. Langford, but I'm going to have to ask that you wait in the lobby while we start prepping him. We'll only be in your way."

Ellie smirked a little, knowing that the nurse was merely trying to be courteous; what she really wanted to say was that Ellie was going to be in _their_ way. She slowly left Isaac's bedside and headed for the door, thinking about what Dr. Taylor had said. While he had lifted her spirits with the possibility of Isaac's recovery, that she now had to leave him behind again chipped at her confidence. Escorted by the nurse Ellie walked out into the lobby with slumped shoulder, and the nurse gave her a reassuring hug.

"Don't you worry. He's going to be just fine. We'll arrange a ride for you, so you should just take it easy for now."

Still feeling too attached to leave, Ellie shook her head.

"Can't I stay here? I really don't want to go, in case anything happens to him."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather go home? It's going to be while..."

Ellie shook her head eagerly.

"I want to stay. Besides, I don't really have a home to go to, anyway."

Not sure what to say the nurse fell silent, then shrugged her shoulders.

"Alright, if you insist. Take a nap, at least."

Ellie didn't say anything else to her, and took a seat upon one of the lobby benches. At this time of the night the lobby was virtually deserted save for the nurses at the reception desk and perhaps one or two stragglers in the waiting room, and the whole place felt cold and dank. The bright overhead lights stung her exhausted eye, and she reclined as best she could upon the uncomfortable bench seat to wait out her time. Her breath slowed as she absorbed herself in fearful thoughts about what could happen over the next twelve hours.

"Everything will be okay."

Ellie heard a voice coming from right next to her. She popped open an eye and glanced to her right to see there was a man sitting there whom she had not noticed before; he appeared to be of south Asian descent, with dark skin, brown eyes, thick, short black hair and a tightly trimmed mustache of the same color. He was well dressed in an eloquent, grey pashmina suit and tie that fit him like a glove, with a pair of hand tailored shoes that glistened in the lobby room lights like slabs of onyx. By his side on the bench was a mixed bouquet of carnations, roses and baby's breath, and in his hand was a small, vinyl-bound book, which he had apparently been reading. The whole ensemble was strikingly eye catching, considering the materials that comprised his outfit had to have been incredibly rare and expensive; this man seemed to shine like a beacon in such a depressing place, and Ellie was surprised to think that she had missed seeing him at first. Initially, she wasn't sure that it was she he was speaking to, but seeing there was no one else nearby, she closed her eye and replied weakly.

"Yeah. Sure."

The man chuckled with a laughter that seemed rather jolly and attractive. His accent was thick and heavy.

"You are waiting for someone, yes?"

Running on little sleep Ellie wasn't in the mood to engage in conversation, but she was intrigued by this exotic looking man. She opened her eyes again and glanced at him.

"My uh, my husband. He's undergoing surgery right now."

The man nodded, and leaned forward to place his elbows upon his knees.

"Is it serious? Hoping he is ok."

She appreciated the man's concern, as there was a genuinely compassionate sense about him; perhaps more so than anyone else she had met here so far.

"Yep. Pretty serious."

Feeling encouraged to keep talking but not wanting to dwell any further upon the details of Isaac's condition, she looked down at the bouquet of flowers stowed at the man's side.

"So, what - I mean, who are you here for?"

Taking notice that she was looking at the flowers, he picked them up in one hand, slowly twirled them around, then placed them back down.

"Oh, my wife. We are having baby. But, she is having these, complications, you know? They are having to perform this..."

He demonstrated by straightening his right hand and making a slicing motion over his belly. Ellie nodded in acknowledgement.

"Oh, a Cesarean."

He pointed his finger at her in response.

"Yes, that is it. She is two months early, but the problems, you see - cannot wait."

Ellie looked down, saddened to think that he must have been sharing in the same anxiety as she, waiting for his loved one. She empathized with him.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Without appearing the least bit downtrodden, the man immediately shook his head with a light reply.

"No, no bother. My wife and son, they will be ok."

His positivity seemed almost unreal to Ellie. She looked at him, feeling secretly inspired by the confidence that she saw in his eyes.

"Aren't you worried about them?"

"Worried? No. I love them, yes, but I do not worry. Everything is in God's hands. He takes care."

While she had no reason to suspect anything sinister about this man, conditioned by her long-standing fear of the Unitologists Ellie's fear was immediately triggered upon his mentioning god; as far as she was concerned, just about anyone who spoke so unabashedly in such a way nowadays was probably one of them. She didn't want to make the accusation outright, so she sought to indirectly draw it out of him.

"So, you uh... a religious man, are you?"

The man smiled again and responded softly.

"I am supposing you can say this."

"I see. Well, I'm not really a religious person, myself. Can't say I know much about god."

He seemed to pay no mind to her uneasiness.

"Well, it is alright. But this, 'religion'... this word, is a tricky one, you see."

"How do you mean?"

He tilted his head thoughtfully.

"'Religion', this word, it implies there is faith. But faith may change. Today, I am Hindu - tomorrow, I may become Muslim. Or Christian. Or even Unitologist. These, are changes. But beyond this change, there is something unchanging. What is this unchanging thing?"

He paused and looked at Ellie, and it hit her that he was waiting for her to answer. She fumbled a bit.

"Oh, erm... you mean, what's similar between them? Well, I guess... god, right? I mean, they all believe in god, at least in some way or another."

The man's eyes were as gentle upon her as a lamb's.

"Yes. All of these. They are so different, but not so much. So, religion, it is changing. Like everything in this world. But Krishna - God - He is beyond; He does not change. Then, He is greater than religion, yes."

Ellie wasn't quite sure she was following him, yet couldn't help but feel awed by his poetic verve. The man could tell that she was nervous as she continued to look around the hospital lobby like a caged animal, and he rolled his thumb over the corners of the pages in the book he was holding.

"You should not worry. He is taking care of you. And your husband. You have nothing to fear; you have no enemies."

Ellie's eyes shot up at him; it was as if he had read her mind, and it mystified her. Still, feeling fearful, she didn't anything.

"_na tv evāham jātu nāsam, na tvam neme janādhipāh, na caiva na bhavisyāmah, sarve vayam atah param._"

Ellie bent an eyebrow, wondering if he was perhaps speaking in some Marker gibberish.

"Uh, what?"

He then smiled at her, a gentle look that filled her heart with a moment of serenity that she could not explain.

"'_Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be_.'"

He held up the book in his hands.

"It is in here."

He opened it, flipped through a few pages, and then handed it over to Ellie. Not knowing what to say she hesitantly took it as he offered it to her, and glancing at the page she saw what looked like Sanskrit, followed directly after by the English translation he had just recited. As she looked at it, the man continued to speak.

"These words - these are Lord Krishna's words. He is speaking to His friend, Arjuna."

He leaned toward her, pointing to the page.

"You see, Arjuna is afraid. Facing so much death, he is. He is great warrior, on battlefield, about to fight. His enemies - his family, his friends, everyone he has known, fighting on other side against him. He's not wanting to fight with them. But Lord Krishna, He is telling his friend Arjuna that he has nothing to fear. Nothing to fear, because he is eternal. He is always existing. His family, his friends, they are always existing. Always. Like us. We are the same as Arjuna. These bodies, these material bodies..."

He patted his chest with his hand, and jiggled his tie.

"... These, they are temporary. They come, they go. The body, this is cover of the self. Like clothes we wear. But we are never changing. We are always there, we are always existing. Like Lord Krishna says."

While Ellie was not usually one to engage in philosophical discourses over theories of human existence, the clarity and simple logic with which this man spoke encouraged her to humor him. She could see by now that there was nothing about this man's words or nature that supported him being tied to any of the inane, radical viewpoints of Unitology; he was talking about something else entirely. Slowly, she began to abandon her fear.

"You're talking about the soul?"

He flashed her a toothy grin that stood out like a string of white pearls against his dark skin.

"Yes, the soul. Soul, it is eternal. We have no death. Only change of clothes. Lord Krishna, He speaks like this. Lord Krishna is eternal. We are also eternal."

Again, he tapped the book with his finger.

"But Arjuna, he is confused. He is thinking he is this body. He is thinking everyone he knows, they are belonging to these bodies, that he will be killing them. That they will die, they will be no more. He does not understand. So, he is crying, '_I shall not fight_.'"

As if he knew what it was that haunted her, the man chuckled.

"You see, these Unitologists. They are so foolish. So absorbed in trying to become immortal that they have forgotten they already are. They are so focused on the body that they have forgotten their souls, even though they talk so much about them. They do not even follow their own words."

Enlightened by the man's words and apparent fearlessness of Unitology, Ellie was stunned. She could only watch as he reached for the book in her limp hands to turn it back to the previous page, and read the Sanskrit verse on this page aloud.

"_'śrī-bhagavān uvāca, asocyan anvaśocas tvam, prajñā-vādāmś ca bhāsase, gatāsūn agatāsūmś ca nānuśocanti panditah.'"_

He then stopped, prompting Ellie to read the English translation herself. Glancing at him with a little uncertainty, she then looked back down at the book in her hands, and slowly read the words out loud.

_"'The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.'_"

When she finished, she looked up to see he was still smiling at her.

"Yes, very good. You see? You are lamenting for your husband... But this, you should not do. He will be alright. Even if he leaves this body, he will be always ok. This body, it can be cut to pieces, it can be burnt to ashes, but the spirit soul cannot be. Lord Krishna... you see? He is taking care. Always. He is always our friend."

Curious to know what she was reading, Ellie flipped the book closed and glanced at the cover. She saw there were no dire, Unitologist aphorisms, no twisted Marker emblems anywhere in sight, as was usual for their published propaganda... simply a title, impressed in gold foil.

**BHAGAVAD-GITA**

Just then, one of the nurses emerged from down the hall and approached them, motioning to the gentleman.

"Mr. Suresh, your wife and son have just come out of the operating room. You can see them now, if you like."

The man then turned to Ellie and smiled, matter-of-factly.

"See? Lord Krishna. He is always taking care."

Though she had no idea who this man was and their meeting had been so brief, Ellie couldn't help but feel as if she had just finished conversing with an old friend. Grateful for having met him, she smiled wider than she had in months.

"Oh, that's great! Congratulations to you."

After standing up, straightening his tie and picking up the bouquet of flowers, he turned around and looked at Ellie.

"You take care of Isaac. He will very much need you when he wakes up."

Ellie bet an eyebrow at him. She was pretty certain that she had not told him Isaac's name, and she wondered if perhaps he had somehow overheard her conversations with the nurses. As if to put her mind at rest, the gentleman pulled one of the roses out of the bouquet in his hand and handed it to Ellie. He then turned around, and started to walk away with the nurse. Ellie glanced down into her lap, realizing she was still holding his book.

"Oh, don't forget your book."

The man stopped, again glanced back at Ellie and winked at her.

"It is for you. You read it. Then, when you have finished, you read it to your husband. I will get another one."

Before Ellie had the chance to thank him, he and the nurse had already walked away. Ellie kept her eyes upon him as they continued down the hall, the sounds of his immaculately tailored shoes against the linoleum floor fading as they turned a corner and disappeared. Once she was alone again in the lobby, the disparaging thoughts and concerns again crowded in around her until her eyes fell to the book in her hands. Then, considering how long she had to wait until Isaac's operation was complete, she opened it to the first page and began to read it.

She continued to read until the first rays of sunlight poured in through the glass of the hospital's entrance way double doors, and she just couldn't hold her eyes open any longer. She finally fell asleep, oblivious to the nurse who arrived to cover her slumbering body with a soft, wooly blanket. The nurse noticed the rose lying next to her on the bench, so she picked it up, carefully tucked it behind Ellie's ear, and grinned.

"Sleep well, wild flower."


	5. Not Right In The Head

**Chapter 5_  
_Not Right In The Head**

* * *

_Startled awake by the harsh clangor of the alarm clock, Isaac immediately opens his eyes and pushes himself up from his bed, shooting a cagey glance around his dark, dilapidated apartment. Realizing where he is, a deep sigh escapes him and he reaches up with a hand to rub the exhaustion from his face. Though he has been through this routine practically everyday since having taken refuge at New Horizons, he still can't seem to get used to it._

What a nightmare.

_He rises lazily to his feet and drags himself toward the bathroom, passing through the crimson light of the sun that pours in through the windows along the way. The world beyond them is scorched and desolate, ravaged by fierce winds and saturated in a veil red as blood, but Isaac takes no notice. To him, it's no different than any other day._

A neverending, recurring nightmare.

_He enters the bathroom and flips on the light switch. As the overhead lamp crackles and blinks to life, he walks up to the sink and stares into the filthy, stagnant water that fills it, which has been utilized as a nursery for a spawning population of larvae. The air is teeming with the incessant buzzing of the matured insects that have already taken to the air, but none of this seems to register with Isaac. He simply watches the larvae with curiosity as they oscillate through the water, occasionally pricking the surface's thin film of grime._

"You're late."

_Upon the sound of Ellie's voice, Isaac glances up into the broken mirror in front of him. He immediately sees her reflection, replicated into a thousand identical iterations across the glass shards where his ought to be, and she is staring right back at him. Her appearance is of one in great distress, her wounds hastily bandaged, her eyebrows, hair and shoulders frosted with ice. She is streaked all over by thin, dried lines of dirt and blood, and her face is as solemn as that of a ghost's. Disturbed to see her in such a state, Isaac eyes her reflection uneasily and shrugs his shoulders._

Late for what?

_The expression upon her face remains as solid as a wooden carving._

"...You're too late."

_Her voice sounds so frail and empty, it almost doesn't sound like her. He watches as her face slowly begins to fall, and he suspects that he is responsible for whatever has roused such a display of sadness in her. Lately, it seems he always is._

I'm sorry, Ellie. Listen, I -

_His words fall short when he spots a trail of blood emerging from her scalp line, and it runs down the side of her face. Another trail follows shortly after along the opposite side, then another, and another, increasing more and more until she is painted in blood. Then, without a word she backs away from the mirror and disappears into the darkness just beyond the range of the light, vanishing completely. Isaac quickly turns back toward the bathroom entrance - but he finds there is no entrance. _

_His apartment is gone and he is now somewhere outside, where an endless stretch of sand lies beneath his feet and a blood red sky prevails overhead. The wicked, chastising voices of the Marker reprise their taunting inside his head more so than ever before, which in this lonely place serve as his only company. He closes his eyes against an extremely dry, torrid breeze that burns his skin._

**we are hungry we are coming**

_The voices begin to transmogrify into what sounds like the tinkling laughter of children, coming from somewhere beyond him. Upon opening his eyes he observes an ocean of dark, bloody water lapping at a nearby shore, and the red sky is set alight by a cluster of moons that glow malevolently like cindered asteroids high above. He looks down to see that the land is flat and sandy everywhere except for a thick patch of vegetation surrounded by lanky, malformed trees, just in front of him. Farther in the distance he can barely identify the silhouettes of several small houses, forming the outskirts of what appears to be an isolated, oceanfront village._

"¡Mira mami, mira!"

_Again, the sound of a child's cachinnation draws Isaac's attention to a little girl who suddenly leaps out of the bushes. She is playfully chasing a sandpiper with the uneven, infantile carriage of a toddler, running after the bird as it darts through the sand, and she doesn't notice Isaac as he retreats into the shadows to stay out of her sight. He continues to watch her with the utmost curiosity, wondering if she had come from the nearby village, and it concerns him that such a young child is left all alone near the ocean. He briefly considers whether he should intervene until he hears another voice - that of a young, attractive woman with dark, shoulder-length hair, dressed plainly in a soft, white cotton skirt and blouse, sitting near the shoreline and watching the child with a smile of loving adoration. _

"Sí, sí, te veo. Bueno, tenga cuidado. No juegue demasiado áspero."

___Though he cannot understand her, Isaac figures her to be the child's mother. _The woman speaks fluently, but unable to separate her words from those of the voices in his head, he has difficulty discerning what language she is speaking. Neither the woman nor her child have noticed him as they enjoy a nice, relaxing time on the beach, and Isaac presumes that he must be invisible until the woman suddenly turns her glance in his direction. She makes eye contact with him through the shadows but gives no indication that she has seen him; indeed, it almost seems as if she is staring right through him like he doesn't exist. But the woman's fading smile betrays her awareness of his presence, her eyebrows slowly dropping until they form a solid line above her eyes. Suddenly feeling exposed by the gravity that seizes her expression, Isaac fears that he has no choice but to introduce himself. He slowly emerges from the shadows.

...Uh, hi there...

_But the very moment that Isaac steps toward her, the woman leaps to her feet like a startled hare and motions sharply to her child._

"Conejito, venga... venga aquí... ¡Venga aquí, ahora!"

_Even with the language barrier, its obvious by her behavior that Isaac has frightened her. Immediately he raises his hands, seeking to prove that he means them no harm._

No no, it's okay!

_As he catches a glimpse of his left arm, it strikes him that his hand is completely missing and in its place there is a long, wide-bladed machete, the handle of which is crudely fastened to the severed stump of his wrist by a variety of blood soaked bandages, belts and a thick rope that has been wrapped around and knotted several times. The rope is so tight that it has dug into the flesh of his forearm and cut off the circulation, causing the entire length of it to turn black and necrotic, but Isaac is numb to the pain that would otherwise be causing. In horrified amazement he stares at the twisted, razor sharp prosthetic, dripping with fresh blood that scintillates eerily in the moonlight as it runs down over the base of the blade onto his rotting, cadaverous limb. _

What, what is this?

_This macabre sight incites Isaac to inspect the rest of his body, upon which he realizes that he is naked from the waist up, covered in blood. There are several long, bleeding gashes __engraved into his chest and abdomen that_ converge into the pattern of a Marker. A black, blood stained cloth hood is tied around his neck, and though he cannot see his back he can feel the weight of something very heavy and sharp grinding into each of his shoulder blades.  


What the fuck?

_Isaac has no way to explain his gruesome metamorphosis, and he stares dumbfounded at the woman as she beckons wildly to her child. Her panic ascends, inspiring the child to obey her mother's order and come running to her side. The woman wraps her arms protectively around the girl and points accusingly at Isaac with fear and hatred in her eyes, screaming at the top of her lungs._

"¡Aléjese de nosotros, tú diablo! Ir de nuevo donde vienes, tú no perteneces aquí tú asesino!"

_The woman scoops the girl up in her arms and bolts off into the bushes, still screaming._

"¡Él está aquí! ¡Tezcatlipoca ha llegado, y él nos destruirá a todos!"

_Isaac watches the brush sway violently back and forth in her wake as she runs through it, heading directly for the village in the distance. He then turns his eyes to the skies, grazing over the brethren of Moons above until he feels something warm against his feet. He looks down to see that a large pool of blood has collected directly beneath him, and he follows the trail to the source coming from behind. When he turns around, he sees an enormous aggregation of bodies - thousands upon thousands of them - sprawled on the ground, their hands and heads severed, scattered everywhere and appearing as if they are floating on a river of their own blood. Among them he sees so many familiar faces; allies and enemies, humans and necromorphs alike._

It's happening again... Everyone is dying around me.

_Not knowing what else to do he madly attempts to convince himself that this is all just a hallucination, induced by the inauspicious influence of the Moons and fueled by his recent memories of the Unitologist infested Terra Nova._

Carver.

_Remembering the survival companion he had managed to return to Earth with, Isaac starts scanning the pile of bodies to see if John Carver is among them._

Carver... Carver, you here?

_He searches but doesn't find the soldier anywhere among them, and he hopes this to be a positive sign that his friend is alive somewhere. His search efforts are cut short by __the woman's screams echoing in the distance, upon which he raises his head in fear that she might return with others to retaliate against him for the deaths of all these people. _

There has to be a way out of here.

_Isaac quickly starts to head down the shoreline in the opposite direction of the village, but the longer he travels the harder it becomes to keep going. Something is making him increasingly desensitized to his body, and a strong desire to fall sleep seizes him. He hardly makes it several yards before falling to his knees, and he struggles to keep his eyes open. His ears become deaf to all sound, making him feel as if encased within airtight glass. He suspects that he has been drugged._

_Suddenly and without warning, a migraine pierces the right side of his brain with the blinding ferocity of an aneurysm, filling his head with an intolerably loud, wailing sound. He collapses upon the sand like a dead weight and screams out in agony, plagued by visions of the brethren of Moons._

Please! Please **stop!**

_For a time Isaac lies there with his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched tightly, his body frozen and motionless as any of the corpses strewn upon the sand next to him._

"Hey, you alright?"

_A voice suddenly penetrates the ringing in his ears, and as if in response to it the pain immediately releases its hold. Once freed Isaac clutches the right side of his head, which feels like a hot iron rod has just been extracted from it, and he rolls over onto his back. Despite his bodily woes the approaching figure inspires him to smile, and his voice is barely above a whisper between hastened breaths as he speaks._

Ell... Ellie.

_The silhouette comes closer and leans over him, blocking his vision of the Moons in the sky. __Instilled with a sense of hope Isaac closes his eyes and reaches his hand out to her._

"So, what you doing here, then?"

_She speaks to him again, and Isaac begins to suspect that it isn't who he thought. The vocal cadence of this person is sharper than that of the prim and formal accent Ellie boasts, and the tone is thinner, almost quivering like that of a child. He opens his eyes and looks up to see that it isn't Ellie at all - it is actually the same dark haired woman he had just seen run off in a hysterical fit through the brush. Yet, her demeanor now is completely different; her face is blooming with a brilliant smile, her eyes are bright and __she doesn't appear to be afraid of him_ anymore, as if she has forgotten the scenario entirely. Even more interesting is the fact that she is now speaking his language in a perfectly recognizable fashion. 

"Are you ok?"

_Wondering if he is somehow mistaken, he stutters._

I, I uh...

_ Remembering how frightened she was just moments ago, he looks down at his hand only to find it is perfectly intact. The machete and its binding agents are all gone along with the cuts all over his body, he's fully dressed and apart from a few bruises, scrapes and bad memories, he is unharmed. He cranes his neck to look behind him, and sees that all of the bodies that were littering the beach have vanished without leaving even a drop of blood to trace their existence._

"What are you doing out here?"

_Isaac is at a loss to answer her as he grips her hand, and she pulls him to his feet. Once he's upright, the woman chuckles jokingly._

"Whoa, you're a lot heavier than you look!"

_She continues to laugh but Isaac's grave expression suppresses her gaiety. Feeling a little uncomfortable, she clears her throat._

"I, I'm sorry, have we met somewhere before?"

_Isaac doesn't recognize this woman at all; the only thing he does know about her is that the voices he has been hearing all this time seem to have been silent since her arrival. He weakly shakes his head._

I don't know. Who did you say you were?

_The woman draws her hands back to her sides. She nervously glances him up and down, ignoring his question._

"Something about you is _very_ familiar. You sure we haven't met?"

_Isaac cannot help but share in her sense of familiarity despite that she is a stranger to him, and suspicion continues to mount. He tilts his head, gazing upon her a little darkly. _

So, you um, you come here often?

_Shifting her weight, the woman flexes a chiseled eyebrow at him._

"How do you mean?"

_He motions with an upward glance to the sky, prompting her to turn around. The woman follows his lead and looks up toward the gathering of Moons that overshadow the land. She turns back to Isaac with an assertive shake of her head._

"Oh. No no, you have all wrong. I'm just here looking for someone."

_He knows that this woman could be a total lie much like anything else he sees around him, but there is something inexplicable about her that defies his theory._

Wasn't that you I saw just a few minutes ago? You and your kid? Or am I crazy?

_From her dark locks of hair and youthful, almost childlike features to her soft, white cotton dress, Isaac knows this is same person despite her firm objection. He has no response for her, and she finally turns away from him._

"There's someone that I need to find. I thought they might be here."

_He considers asking who she is waiting for, but for some reason he is afraid. Instead,__ he changes the subject._

Nevermind. Hey, you know how I can get out of here?

"Well, go back the way you came."

_It's obvious that her intent is not to offend him, but something about her response seems duplicitous and it irks him. He looks out over the ocean, scanning __the blood red horizon for a sign, a landmark, or anything else that might help him figure out where he is._

I can't go back. I have no idea how I even got here. One minute I'm in my apartment, and the next minute I...

_He turns back only to find that the woman has vanished, and he is speaking out loud to no one. Once again alone on the empty stretch of beach he looks down at the sand, searching for her footprints in order to track where she may have gone to. The sand is smooth and unblemished._

What the hell? Where'd you go?

_When Isaac turns around he suddenly sees what appears to be the body of a necromorph, severely beaten beyond recognition and heaped in a pile exactly where the young woman was standing. __T__hough he knows he should take great precaution, Isaac is anxious to know if it is the corrupted remains of the mysterious young woman and he takes a step closer__._

Was she a necromorph this whole time?

_As he comes within arm's reach of it the necromorph suddenly lashes out at him with its only intact arm, gripping him around the neck with its twisted, alien claws. Overcome by the strike Isaac grabs its arm on either side of the elbow in a rage, and with all his strength he tears the joint in half, effectively severing the creature's bladed forearm from its body with his bare hands.__The necromorph emits a shrill, warbling scream as Isaac_ pries its fingers from around his neck, breaks the sharp, organic blade off from the rest of the severed limb and thrusts it down upon the creature's back.

**no no no why are you doing this to me isaac**

___Blood flies everywhere as the necromorph flails around wildly in the sand, skewered to the ground, but Isaac's sense of violence is far too aroused to be impeded by any fear or rationality. He brazenly grabs the necromorph by the skin of its decomposing neck and squeezes until he can feel the veins beneath burst from the pressure, and dark, infected blood gushes out in frothing bubbles between his knuckles. Never has he felt such anger, such hatred, such a desire to see this creature annihilated, and as the remaining life drains from its mangled alien face, he gazes up darkly to the sky._

Go to hell. This is my message to all of you.

___In its death throes the necromorph continues to scream, and it struggles to pry Isaac's grip from around its neck with its tentacles. Amazingly, in such an enraged state Isaac is stronger than the creature, and he is able to subdue it with his hand until it finally falls limp and all its movement ceases. Once h____e is certain the necromorph is dead for good, Isaac finally releases it and drops it to the ground, where it lands with a thick, bloody thud at his knees. ______He wipes the fine spray of blood from his face and glances down at the necromorph's body._

Fucker.

_As he looks at it, there is a spark of recognition on Isaac's part. He blinks his eyes in horrified disbelief._

... Ellie?

_The necromorph lying on the sand before him is actually a deformed mutation of __Ellie's body; although it has undergone considerable transformation, the details of its face are unmistakable. Her eyes are wide open and deep red, nearly bulging from their sockets as she stares lifelessly ahead of her. Her cheeks are streaked in dirt and blood and her neck is deeply bruised by his hand prints, her throat crushed __by the strength of his hand. __Her body is tormentingly twisted and dismembered, __nothing more than a disgracefully mutilated, empty vessel. _

No. No!

_The sight is so gruesome that it forces tears of blood out of Isaac's__ eyes. A wave of remorse overrides him, he reaches down with shaking hands to pick her up, and he proceeds to hold her to his chest, smearing her blood all over himself as he mourns her death at his hands. So absorbed in his lamenting, Isaac fails to notice that the temperature is dropping sharply and the sand all around him has turned to snow. _

No. I would never do this.

_______Isaac remains oblivious to the hostile, arctic world of Tau Volantis as it materializes all around him - t_he ocean freezes over, the blood red sky becomes ribbed by icy grey stratus clouds, and the torrid, tropical breeze has become a freezing wind. Without a protective suit he is already losing body heat and in these conditions he doesn't have more than a few minutes to find shelter, but Isaac does not care to find it. His mind is only upon Ellie, and the grave misfortune he has brought upon her.

I could never, ever do this to you. I love you.

___A blizzard begins to rage and the falling snow builds up rapidly around him, almost burying him within minutes, and still Isaac does not care to save himself from death. He almost welcomes it, and in his state of despair his mind____ succumbs to more visions of the Moons and the impending doom they bring. The paroxysmal headache seizes him again in the cold, and he is quickly losing consciousness as his body becomes numb. He is consumed by the blizzard's merciless fury, and before his world goes black, the harrowing collective of voices inside his brain return with a vengeance._

**cursed is the man who dies but the evil done by him survives ****cursed is the man who dies but the evil done by him survives ****cursed is the man who dies but the evil done by him survives**


	6. Rude Awakening

**Chapter 6**  
**Rude Awakening**

* * *

In the isolated solitude of the recovery wing, Isaac began to emerge from his post-op coma. He tried to open his eyes but they were weak, his fully dilated pupils unable to tolerate the light until a shadowy figure leaning over him blotted it out.

"C'mon, baby. Wake up."

Isaac barely recognized Ellie, sitting next to him on the bed and holding his hand with a hope-starved grin upon her face.

"Oh, my god. You made it!"

She could see that he was sluggish and confused, still under the residual effects of his coma. His movements were delayed and uncoordinated, and it was difficult for him to speak.

"... Wh, where..."

Though it was weak and raspy, the sound of his voice caused Ellie's heart to spill. A tear of relief ran down her cheek, coming to rest in the dimple of her smile as she pressed her finger to his lips, leaned in and graced him with a quick, gentle kiss.

"It's okay. You're home. Well, I mean, close enough. You're safe."

She pulled back and looked into his glazed eyes, but Isaac did not respond to her. She had felt his muscles go limp when they kissed, and as if in a trance he stared blankly ahead of him like a lifeless, porcelain doll. Ellie wasn't sure if it was merely the effects of his coma, the anesthetization wearing off, or perhaps something else, but as unsettling as it was she tried to remain positive.

"Hey. I'm here for you, Isaac. I'm right here. But you gotta come back to me. Please."

Again she awaited a response, but was disappointed. Hoping that all he needed was a little more time she eased off of him and started rubbing his hand, examining him in the silence. The nurses had already removed most of the obtrusive medical instruments and monitoring equipment upon the completion of his surgery, and she now had a clearer view of how much he had changed in the two months since Tau Volantis.

While modern medical science had done its part to accelerate the healing of most of his superficial wounds, the extent of the injuries he had suffered was still obvious. Many larger, prominent scars that laser treatment could not completely remove still remained, along with a number of bruises that marked his body like black paint. The long lacerations that striped his face and forehead had crusted over into dark red scabs, his eye socket was still severely bruised, and the lines of his face had become more pronounced from dehydration and loss of body weight. The neck brace along with many of his bandages had been removed, but his left arm remained in a cast. His semblance had also been neglected while in the ICU; his facial hair had grown noticeably, forming a coarse, dark, silver mottled beard nearly two inches long, and the hair on his head had lengthened nearly to his ears with the exception of a small, cleanly shaven surgical entry point just behind his right temple. It was almost as if ages had taken their toll on him, yet Ellie felt assured to see that he was already looking healthier as a result of his returning to consciousness.

"You came all this way. Don't give out on me now."

When Isaac continued to stare in a way that didn't seem right, the smile started to slip from her face and she became really worried. She glanced nervously over her shoulders, checking to make sure the door to his room was locked and that they were alone.

"Isaac please, please just -"

To her surprised, in an instant Isaac shook off his hebetudinous daze and sat straight up, gripped her head with his hands, and kissed her eagerly. As his tongue filled her mouth she emitted a muffled yelp of surprise, but having missed him so much it didn't take her long to relent to his will. She started to reciprocate his affection with enthusiasm, until Isaac pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"Did I really make it? Am I really here?"

He glanced around skittishly through bloodshot eyes.

"We have to get out of here."

Ellie blinked at him, unable to believe what was happening.

"Wait... what did you say?"

She could see that full cognizance illuminated his face, burning what was left of his bodily atrophy to flames. His eyes narrowed upon her, and quickly lashing out with his hand he grabbed her by the forearm. Startled by it, she cried out.

"Hey! What the hell -"

"Ellie, we have to get to the Black Marker."

Baffled by his recovery, and even more unnerved by his preoccupation with the Markers so soon after awakening, Ellie stopped struggling against him.

"The Black Marker? What are you talking about? There is no more Marker signal, you stopped it!"

However, she could see that neither her words nor her gorgeous smile of victory satiated him. He shook his head.

"This isn't finished. We have to find it. We have to find it before they do."

Ellie began to shrivel, all of the confidence she had been feeling sucked out of her by Isaac's darkening sense of urgency.

"They? But, I... I don't even know where the Black Marker is."

Isaac's cold, unsmiling face bore into her.

"Yes, you do. You have all the research."

Feeling his grip tighten on her arm, she again tried to pull back.

"You need more time. You're not making any sense, Isaac."

"We can't wait. There is no more time."

His menacing mien slowly transmogrified into a look of terror.

"They're hungry, Ellie. They're hungry. And they're coming."

Ellie was frightened, speechless. She had never before seen such exigency in someone, and even more disturbing was what he had said. Though she couldn't place it, she was somewhat positive that she had heard those same words before - and not from a good place. Her blood began to run cold in her veins.

"Who's coming?... Isaac, I don't understand."

Isaac didn't respond to her. Sensing that her composure was teetering, he just glanced over her soft, timorous features in silence, offering little consolation in his solemn expression before turning away. His eyes then fell to his body, and he started pulling at the few remaining bandages and EKG pads that were still strapped to his chest. Stunned by what she was witnessing, Ellie questioned whether Dr. Taylor had perhaps understated just how rapid the healing process of Isaac's experimental surgery would be.

"Oh, shit...! Maybe you shouldn't be -"

Ignoring her, Isaac planted his feet firmly on the floor and stood up.

"We have to leave. Now."

Seeing most of his body was left exposed after removing the bandages, Ellie started searching the room for something to clothe him with.

"How can we leave? We're in an EarthGov medical facility - there's no way we're going to just walk out of here! There is security crawling around all over the place. Besides... I mean, you just, you just..."

Ellie noticed that Isaac was staring at something behind her. She turned around, and saw upon the far wall there was a metal ventilation shaft cover, sealed flush with the surface. Turning back to Isaac with a look of incredulity upon her face, she sucked the back of her teeth.

"... You're totally mad."

Isaac shook his head, a wry smile forming upon his beaten, bruised face.

"Works for them, doesn't it?"

"Works for who?"

Isaac started heading toward the wall, brushing past her. She found a large, cotton medical robe under one of the counters, then came up behind it and wrapped it around him, glancing nervously at the door.

"What is going on? You really shouldn't be up like this so soon after the surgery."

Isaac tied the robe around him and looked at her.

"Surgery? What surgery?"

"Isaac, don't you know what happened to you?"

Their eyes met uncomfortably for a moment, then without a further word Isaac turned his attention back to the ventilation shaft. He reached up to the grate and yanked it off the wall, then started peering around inside of it. Coma or no, Ellie had finally had enough. She rooted her feet to the ground, clenched her fists, and erupted at him.

"What the _fuck_ is going on, Isaac? You've been virtually dead for months, then in minutes you're running about like a lunatic! And not just that, but you're dead set on getting everybody's attention by crawling through the vents like a goddamn necromorph! I'm not taking another fucking step until you tell me what has gotten up your ass!"

Picking up on the frightened vibrations in her voice that she sought to conceal with her anger, Isaac stepped back from the vent and turned to her with a softened expression. He gently placed his right arm on her shoulder, and looked her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ellie. I didn't mean the scare you. But really, don't worry. I'm okay now. I'm just fine."

He stepped a little closer to her, and smiling mildly.

"And I don't mean to be short with you. It's just that we don't have a lot of time. Tau Volantis wasn't the end of it."

Feeling all the hopes in her heart being crushed by his words, her lips began to slip into a frown.

"But, the signal... it was gone, Isaac. I scanned, and I scanned... it wasn't there."

He shook his head.

"It's not the only one. They know what happened, and now they're coming for Earth. That's why we need to find the Black Marker."

Ellie's eyes fell to the floor.

"There's... more? You mean more signals?"

Isaac nodded silently, and Ellie sighed.

"You know as much as I do about it... it's thousands of miles from here, buried in some temple that doesn't even exist anymore. How the hell are we gonna get out of this place, let alone get all the way there?"

Isaac looked at her thoughtfully.

"Looks like we have a lot of ground to cover. We've got to go. _Now._"

"Hey, hey, Isaac! Wait!"

Astonished by his verve, she tugged on his arm as he proceeded to climb up into the vent. Even in his condition he was unabated by her efforts, and she shot wide, frightened eyes at the door again, praying that no one would come in as he slipped into the vent with the dexterity of spider. She just stood there and stared into the open vent with total disbelief, desperate to understand what Isaac was hoping to achieve.

"What the fuck, Isaac."

She pressed her hands to her face, and drew a long, deep breath.

_Ok. So she had been hoping their reunion might have been a little more... romantic.  
_

She saw that Isaac was already several feet deep, and against all better judgement, she started to follow him into the vent.

_But, crazy might just work.  
_


	7. Invocation

**Chapter 7**  
**Invocation**

* * *

_Something just wasn't right._

Dr. Richard Taylor sat alone in his office, staring down at the data screen in front of him on his desk. On the screen were two images, each of them a series of tomographic x-rays focused on a human brain. Taylor was examining each series of images with scrutinizing eyes, exploring every detail and variation he could find, astonished by what he saw. He pressed a pensive hand to his chin.

_There had to be a reason for this. This couldn't be an accident, or a machine malfunction.  
_

He spent a little more time in contemplation before a call came in. Distracted by his research, he answered it absently.

"...Yes, Andrea...what uh, what do you want?"

Taylor was met unexpectedly by the frantic, wide eyed face of his assistant on the holoscreen.

_"He's gone, Dr. Taylor!"_

"Who? Who's gone?"

_"Isaac Clarke! He's gone, and so is the woman who was with him."_

Taylor sat up, alarmed.

"What? How the hell did that happen?"

_"I don't know! One of the nurses just came back from his room, and... and..."_

The assistant couldn't finish her statement before she broke down in tears. Beginning to panic, Taylor immediately rose to his feet, gesturing to the assistant to remain calm_._

"Alright. It's alright, Andrea. Just... call security right away. I'm on my way."

The assistant shook her head, vehemently.

_"No, Dr. Taylor... You don't understand... you have to come see this."_

Taylor nodded angrily.

"Yes, I understand!"

In a frenzy he fumbled to dismiss the holoscreen, closed the folders he had open on his desk, and bolted from his office. He quickly made his way to the front desk where his assistant was in hysterics.

"Andrea! What's going on?"

The woman was so distraught that she couldn't answer him properly. She merely raised a shivering finger and pointed down the hall toward the recovery wing. Taylor looked down the hall.

"Wait here for security."

In tears the woman nodded, and Taylor swiftly started down the hall toward the recovery wing.

_What could have happened to frighten her like -_

Taylor's stride suddenly stopped as he felt something slick beneath his shoe. He looked down, and saw a long, dark streak of fresh blood, running across the floor. Taylor's heart paused.

_What is this?  
_

With frightened eyes stretched wide Taylor made a long, slow sweep down the hallway, seeing that the trail led all the way up to the closed door of Isaac Clarke's room. When he realized what it was, Taylor caught the aroma of dead, decomposing flesh. Pressing his hand to his mouth, he took a step back.

_Oh, my god._

Taylor nervously approached the door, noticing with disgust that the necrotic odor was getting stronger. He tried to open the door, only to find that it had been locked from the inside.

_How did this get locked?_

Suddenly he heard a loud clamor come from the room, which sounded like something heavy and hard had been violently knocked over. Too terrified to proceed, Taylor just stood frozen in the hallway, waiting for the security team and fighting back the urge to gag.

Once the security team had arrived, Taylor entered his override code for the door. The moment it slid open the outpouring odor became overwhelming, and Taylor stumbled back while the mask-protected security team stormed into the room.

"Whoever's in here, hands..."

Taylor glanced curiously into the room when he heard the captain's words slow to a halt, and what he saw was unconscionable. The room was utterly chaotic - everything was tossed awry, the floor and walls were splattered in blood, and Isaac's bed, which was drenched in blood thick enough to have collected into pools within the folds of the sheets, was nearly torn to pieces. One of the tall medical cabinets was lying dented on the floor, apparently the source of the sound he had heard. The splatters of blood were everywhere as if a large, bloody chunk of flesh had been shaken around, and the matter had already started to putrefy with the tenacity of a nightmare. Everyone in the room was repulsively stunned by the sight, and one of the security guards shook his head disgustedly.

"Jesus, what the fuck happened in here?"

They continued to look around, trying to locate anyone who might be present, but to no avail. Taylor's wild eyes followed the trail of blood on the floor, which led to the back of the room toward an open ventilation shaft. He pointed to it.

"There!"

The guards immediately surrounded the open shaft, examining the grate which was lying on the floor. They all saw the trail of blood, which stretched up the wall and led directly into the vent. The security team captain motioned to his team.

"He's escaped into the ventilation system. I want all access cut off, sweep the system."

Taylor stepped back and watched as the captain barked a few orders at his team, who then dispersed to follow his commands. The captain then approached the doctor.

"It's alright. We'll take it from here."

Taylor just nodded at him without a word, his sick, worried glance still darting back and forth across the room. Unable to stomach the smell, he retreated from the room and headed back for the front desk. His assistant was still in tears, being consoled by one of her colleagues. Taylor glanced them both over, feeling a little sick.

"If anyone wants to speak with me..."

He swallowed back a lump in his throat.

"... I'll be in my office."

His assistant just stared at him with forlorn eyes, like a lost little child not knowing what to do. Taylor knew she needed some guidance right now, but he just wasn't feeling up to being her mentor. His eyes jumped over to her colleague.

"Watch the front desk."

She looked down, putting her arms around her distressed friend.

"Y, yes Dr. Taylor."

With a slow, uncertain shuffle Taylor made his way back to his office in a daze. What was happening felt unreal to him; he had never seen anything so appalling, and he had no idea how to handle the situation.

_Had it merely been a terrible accident, or was there someone dangerous loose in the hospital? And did their patient have anything to do with it?_

Slipping into his office through the door and closing it behind him, Taylor reluctantly approached his desk. He reached for his communication device and opened the line, his face sinking into his hand as he dropped into his chair. A few seconds later, his call was answered.

_"Richard. Nice to hear from you. How are things going there?"_

Taylor leaned forward with folded hands, his thumbs pressed to his temples.

"We have a problem, Sir."

Though the voice on the other end remained light and cordial, there was an air of threat about it that Taylor couldn't help but perceive.

_"Oh Richard, you know I don't like problems. I didn't pay good money for problems."_

Taylor shriveled in his seat.

"I, I know. He's escaped. _BUT..._ I am certain he hasn't gotten out of the hospital. I've got security on it. We're going to find him. I just... I just wanted you to know from me first."

There was a long, penetrating silence that caused Taylor to shed a bead of sweat.

_"... You did the right thing, Richard. Thank you. I think it's time I come down for a chat. See you."_

Before Taylor could respond, the line suddenly went dead. He stared at the device and leaned back in his chair with a sigh of defeat, feeling the weight of impending reprimand upon him. He closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable.

_Shit._

The silence was suddenly broken as he heard a scream erupt from outside his door. It was a deep, blood curdling scream that instantly caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand erect. Fearing it was one of his assistants again, Taylor stood up and started for the door.

"Andrea, what's going on?"

Just as he reached for the door he heard another scream, the sound of which was immediately cut off by a reverberating, monstrous growl and the sounds of tearing. Taylor froze.

_What the hell?_

His heart began to pound in his chest as he pressed his ear to the door, listening to what sounded like inhuman roaring and the violent gurgling of someone choking on their own blood. Desperate to see what was happening but too afraid to open the door, Taylor just stood there in a panic, listening as the sounds of gunfire and shouting from the security team suddenly resounded from down the hall. Breaking down into tears, Taylor shook his head and pounded his fist upon the door.

"I knew it... I knew it. We were in over our heads."

Taylor's state of remorse was abruptly interrupted as the room became filled with an explosive sound. Startled, he looked up to see that the ceiling vent in his office had suddenly burst open, and a large, gruesomely malformed creature beyond description and dripping with blood emerged from the opening. Before Taylor had the time to comprehend what he was seeing, the massive creature threw open a pair of wide, gaping jaws, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth, and spat a large chunk of organic matter at him. It spattered across his chest, and the moment it came into contact with him, it immediately began to eat through his clothing and skin like acid. Frantic to wipe it off, Taylor started to scream.

"Oh, god! Oh, god! _Help me!"_

His skin began to fall from his face and neck in rapidly disintegrating clumps, but his vision remained clear enough to see the creature bearing down upon him with large, scythe-like appendages before his eyeballs liquified. He finally collapsed just as the creature wrapped its tentacles around him.

"Captain! In here!"

The door to Taylor's office opened and two members of the security team charged in, sliding to a halt when they saw Taylor's dead body and the grotesque monster that filled the room, poised to take them down. They looked at each other nervously, raised their pulse rifles and started unloading upon the creature, but their bullets were no match for the thick, scaly hide of this creature as it charged them down, effortlessly mauling them both to death.

* * *

Deep within the ventilation system, Isaac and Ellie made their way down the long, dark corridors, with nothing to guide their way except for the lights of Ellie's RIG. But Isaac appeared to know exactly where he wanted to go, and it was difficult for Ellie not to trust him. It was only natural.

"What was that?"

Ellie gasped and stopped as she heard what sounded like a very distant, familiar howl. Her eyes went wide, and Isaac glanced back at her.

"What's the matter?"

Ellie strained to hear a little more, then looked at Isaac worriedly.

"Didn't you hear that?"

Isaac's eyes darted back and forth for a moment, then he shook his head and continued on down the shaft.

"It's nothing. Come on. We gotta get the hell out of here."


End file.
